Gamescom 2014: Assassin’s Creed Rogue: Dark, Angry, and Out For Blood

How this year’s last-gen entry in the series could be the bleakest, and most aggressive AC yet.

By
Marty Sliva

Assassin’s Creed Rogue, this year’s Xbox 360 and PS3 entry in Ubisoft’s ongoing saga, actively sets itself apart as the darkest and angriest game in the series, while still including a few bits of bizarre levity to make it one of the strangest as well.

We filled you in a few weeks back on the story – you play as Shay, a former Assassin-turned-Templar who makes it his goal to sail around the New England and Canada during the Seven Years' War with the goal of eradicating the Assassin brotherhood. Obviously, by telling the story through the lens of a member of what has always been “the bad guys,” the story was going to take a darker turn. Well, after getting hands-on with a 30-minute chunk of Rogue, it’s clear that this darker tone also exists in the gameplay itself.

The demo started in an icy naval battle in the waters off the coast of eastern Canada. Shay’s ship was fully decked out with some high-level Black Flag accoutrement – artillery at the front, a flurry of cannons on each side, and a bow built for ramming at deadly speeds. But the newest addition here was the ability to spill oil behind you and set it ablaze, causing massive damage to any ships that might be in your pursuit. The sea was also littered with glaciers, which can be used for cover, or blown apart and cause massive ripples in the sea, further changing the way the series approaches naval combat.

After making quick work of my enemies, I took a chance to breathe, only to notice that standing directly to my left was none other than Haytham Kenway, one of the main characters from AC III and the son of Black Flag’s Edward Kenway. I asked the Ubisoft rep what the deal with that was, and while they were coy to give concrete answers, they restated that Rogue takes place between III and Black Flag, and that we can expect many more familiar faces to return.

After that quick run-in with the ghost of my past, I sailed close to a nearby settlement. Being the weirdo that I am, instead of docking, I hopped off of my ship a hundred feet from shore, which I quickly learned is a bad idea in Rogue. As soon as I hit the frigid water, the sides of the screen filled with ice, and my health began to deplete. I got to shore before I died, but lesson learned – don’t do stupid stuff like that in Rogue. I guess it’s safe to say that the diving bell minigames from Black Flag won’t be making a return this time.

Once on land, Rogue continued to show some more of its new aggressive features. Shay carries around a handful of weapons that allow him to make his presence well known. For instance, he now comes equipped with what I’m sure is a period-accurate makeshift grenade launcher, which can fire off smoke bombs, poison, and shrapnel shards. However, being given the choice to either take out a pair of guards in silence using your hidden blades, or throw caution to the wind and simply blow them up with a well-placed grenade feels a bit strange in an Assassin's Creed game, not to mention a bit historically shifty. Here's to hoping that the final game allows Shay to express his anger and thirst for vengeance through some more subtle ways.

The other big change on land, and one that I appreciated much more, is the introduction of rival assassins as enemies. These foes will be able to use all of the skills and tricks that the players have been using since the original game – they’ll hide in bushes, blend in with crowds, and climb up high for hopes of an air attack. Rogue doesn't feature any form of multiplayer, but these encounters could capture the same cat-and-mouse dynamics that the online modes have excelled at since Brotherhood. Regardless, this new type of enemy is certainly much more dangerous than any we’ve seen before, and I’m excited to see how the standard encounter evolves in Rogue.

I ended my demo by hopping back on my ship and sailing straight into more treacherous waters. Since the boat I was given had been upgraded quite a bit, I was able to smash through frozen stretches of water that would normally act as barriers to early-level players. I felt pretty satisfied ending my session on that note, but as I walked out of the booth, a Ubisoft representative asked if I “berserker-darted a polar bear.” I shook my head in equal-parts shame and depression, but rest assured, come this fall, I’m going to do that very thing.